Judge jails Sheffield wife killer for 18 years

Polly Rippon

A husband brutally murdered his wife by stabbing her more than 40 times with a Bowie knife in a ‘ferocious attack’ as she lay defenceless in bed.

Mazhar Hussain Nawab, aged 43, was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 18 years behind bars for the attack in which he used a level of violence described by a judge as ‘quite horrific’.

Anayat Bibi, aged 39, murdered in her own home on Vickers Road in Firth Park in Sheffield, August 2014

Anayat Bibi, his wife of 22 years and the mother of the couple’s two boys, was found in a pool of blood in their marital bed covered by a duvet.

The killing happened after an argument broke out at their home on Vickers Road, Firth Park, Sheffield, last August 10.

Imposing a mandatory life sentence at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Michael Murphy QC said: “This wasn’t simply a frenzied attack with an intention to kill, but a sustained attack which continued even after the deceased could have put up no more resistance.”

He added: “It wasn’t a kitchen knife you picked up. This was a dreadful weapon and you used that weapon to murderous effect.

“A woman is entitled to feel secure and safe in her own home and she was clearly very vulnerable lying in a situation in which she couldn’t defend herself.

“She had stab wounds to her head, neck, face chest and arms.

“The sheer ferocity and savagery shows a level of quite horrific violence on this lady, in my judgement.”

During the hearing it emerged Nawab was jailed for six years in 2012 after he fired a gun into a room full of terrified wedding guests at a Sheffield hotel.

Shocked guests cowered beneath tables as Nawab fired the pistol three times at the Sheffield Park Hotel, Meadowhead, in March 2011. One bullet hit the ceiling, while two shot across the room,

But he was released on licence last July – just a month before he murdered his wife.

Prosector Jonathan Sharp said Nawab and Mrs Bibi were from Pakistan where they had had an arranged marriage in 1992.

They moved to the UK in 1994 but the marriage was not a happy one in its latter stages and there was evidence Nawab had looked at dating sites on a laptop computer recovered from the house.

Mrs Bibi moved out of the marital home and lived in Milton Keynes for a time before returning to her husband.

On the day of the killing the emergency services were called by Nawab, who told the operator his wife had stabbed him and he had stabbed her back.

He pleaded guilty to murdering her on the basis she came at him with the knife but his account was rejected by the judge.

Mr Sharp said Mrs Bibi suffered more than 40 injuries and had been stabbed through the duvet.

They included one to her neck which cut her carotid artery and jugular vein, another to her nose cut her septum, a 6cm wound penetrated her spine, while other stab wounds cut into her ribs, lung and liver.

Mr Sharp said one injury was inflicted after her cardiovascular system had collapsed.

The prosecutor said Mrs Bibi’s family were devastated by the death of a loving mother, daughter and sister and still had unanswered questions about what had happened.

Nawaz refused to answer police questions or give evidence in court.

Mr Sharp said Mrs Bibi ‘cared passionately for the happiness of others’ and was ‘someone to who other members of the family could turn.’

He said she had a lot to look forward to in life, including seeing her sons ‘bloom into adulthood’.

Her family had expected her as a woman in an arranged marriage, to be protected by her husband.

“They wonder how something so terrible could happen to someone so kind,” Mr Sharp said.

Speaking after the hearing, Det Chf Insp Sean Middleton, who led the investigation, said: “It was a sustained and vicious attack on a woman lying in her bed who was entitled to security and protection.

“It was a frenzied assault and he is clearly a dangerous man – that is reflected in the length of the sentence.”